My HP Media Center Pentium 4 computer had software installed to program my HT, my mobile VHF/UHF transceiver, my Uniden scanner and for controlling my ProII with MixW and a RigExpert interface. Everything worked fine until I took the computer to Best Buy for repair because the screen resolution kept resetting itself. They replaced the motherboard and now none of my software will connect with my radios. Recently I bought a microHam DigiKeyer and installed that software and also could not control my ProII with TRX-Manager or Logic8 even after creating virtual com ports.

I'm completely helpless when it comes to computers. Any suggestions on what to do to make my computer connect with my several radio software programs would be greatly appreciated. I see no COM1 or COM2 but there is a COM3 and COM4 and I created virtual COM ports 9 thru 12. I've tried every possible combination of those COM ports with MixW and TRX-Manager to no avail.

Do you have other USB items like a printer that is working okay? Perhaps it is a USB issue, althoug that doesn't explain COM3 and COM4 not working (I assume these are real hardware serial ports).

I'd suggest taking it back along with one of your USB to serial converters and the driver CD. If you are seeing the COM ports on the software programs in Windows then they should work. I think Windows goes directly to the serial port and doesn't depend on the BIOS. That's certainly true of the virtual serial ports that use USB.

If they replaced the motherboard, you may have to re-check the BIOS to ensure all ports are activiated. A bigger headache may be having to uninstall and reinstall each piece of software, so that the ports get properly reassigned. Uninstall one piece of software at a time, (remember to back up settings, frequency lists, etc. first) reboot, and reinstall the software to see if that fixes the problem. Then proceed with the other programs.

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